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Goteki 45 Team Profile

9 – Goteki 45 (Makana)

Team Principal:

Keao Manumaleuna ()

Slogan:

FX300-400: "Future Proof"

FX500: "Do you still Believe?"

Backstory:

If there’s one team that has had problems throughout its’ history of not making friends, it is easily Goteki 45, the ‘Home Team’ for the entirety of the FX300 league and the large majority of FX350. The distinctive yellow, pink and white of the Makana based team is often seen replicated amongst its’ adoring public, especially at popular locations such as the Ubermall and Anulpha Pass, but fairly few other teams will deign to share the limelight with the hyper-aggressive Polynesian team.

Founded by bullish businessman Resaru Kipwada in 2095, Goteki 45 brought an exotic flair to the F7200 league when it arrived, boasting some of the most powerful thrusters technology on the planet and an entire harem of scantily clad hula girls to entertain the track-goers. However, as AG-Systems engineers quickly discovered through a few polite queries about their new rival’s system, the thruster technology was based more on the same brute force that had marked Piranha’s early days, but geared towards short bursts for maximum acceleration. This meant that Goteki was often the first ship off the line, an impressive statistic for such a young company.

However, the lack of adequate pilot training and the general ungainliness of the vessel meant that first AG-Systems, then Qirex, Feisar, Piranha, Auricom and even their fellow newcomers Assegai slid past them. That left only one rival to fight on track, the team with an equally poor handling ship and inexperienced pilots. Thus it was that the back-of-the-pack duels began in earnest between Goteki 45 and the Icaras Project. Icaras would suffer to Goteki off the line and sometimes struggle to get past the big and heavy ship on the twisty tracks, with the Makanans unable to keep up with the British on open, flowing tracks. It just so happened that one more thing was in Goteki’s favour – armour and weapons power.

The number of Icaras eliminations to Goteki 45 was larger than any other team on the grid and most people agree that this was the beginning of Goteki’s slip from popularity in bullying the fragile new Icaras ships. Only Qirex defended Goteki’s side in pointing out that everyone had a right to use weapons as they saw fit – it was in the regulations after all. However, in a surprising move to keep on both teams’ good sides, the Russians began sharing shield technology with Icaras. More cynical voices looking over these events suggest that Qirex was trying to foster a fight between Icaras and Goteki for sponsor Datacast’s benefit.

The fight boiled over into something even Qirex had no control over though when on Mount Haruna in late 2137, near season’s end, a lucky Quake from Vinicius Albeniz of Piranha caused the four ‘old school’ teams’ pilots to need a second pit stop, dropping them back some seconds behind the four new teams. Arbenz began the job of keeping the Assegai behind him for the final lap, with the final step of the podium a straight fight between the two underdogs.

Both Barnston Burns and Kipwada got onto the radios to their pilots. “This is it,” they both insisted. “Get on with it!” George Dravere and Sarema Illkeina didn’t reply – they had switched off their radios for that extra thruster power in the dash for the line and what emerged was one of the most furious duels ever fought over three quarters of a lap. The Englishman had pulled away from his nemesis however at the final pit straight, and was just about to cross the finish line still intact when Sarema hit him with a lucky plasma bolt. The crowd gasped as the Icaras detonated before them, the ejector seat throwing Dravere free of the smoking wreck that had been his craft, but giving him all-too clear a look as the Polynesian woman took Goteki 45’s first ever podium, one that should be all rights have been Icaras’.

The fight between the two pit crews in the aftermath of the podium ceremony crippled five mechanics and Barnston Burns himself, whilst a mechanic on each team was killed, Kipwada dying in hospital later of blunt force trauma to the head. Even Qirex officials said they couldn’t understand the fight that had broken out between the two when both Goteki and Icaras asked for their mutual friend to support them in court. The F7200 race commission fined both teams the equivalent of five hundred thousand Euros from their respective currencies, and they were both banned from the sport from then on. Later that month, the Goteki 45 factory on Makana was bombed, and though unspoken it is believed Icaras were responsible despite more evidence pointing towards Auricom or Qirex.

The ban was lifted with the fall of the F9000 however, and with Antigravity racing coming to Makana itself, Goteki 45 was resurrected by a new leader, Keao Manumaleuna. Though losing more of its’ macho appearance from previous seasons, Goteki 45 is marked as a fast, heavy, aggressive team that finds it difficult to make allies. The fact that the pilots make a habit of marking how many EG-X kills they get during the season probably doesn’t help either.

Ship Details:
Goteki 45’s new ship for the FX500 series sticks in principle to the design brief of previous ships – as much thrust and shield as possible, and ignore the rest. However, improved aerodynamic work has made it possible to corner much better than its’ predecessor, despite test pilots reporting a slight reluctance to barrel roll.

One other problem that the ‘Krakatau’ has before it is its’ extraordinarily high weight. Triakis took the award the previous few seasons for the heaviest craft, but Victoria’s new layered structures of composites mean that despite the new engine, it is roughly the same weight as its’ predecessor. Goteki meanwhile has kept with the time honoured tradition of using industrially folded steel for the chassis, meaning it has remarkable ramming capabilities, and can sustain quite a few knocks against a wall, but it means the top speed has taken something of a hit. As this has always been Goteki’s weak spot however, none of the team have admitted to being worried about it.

Lead Pilot – Tauban Ferrai ()

When Keao Manumaleuna bought the deed for the Goteki 45 factory site and visited it initially with a team of workmen to clear what debris Triakis had left when they combed the place many years ago, they found that a small gang of runaway boys had made the ruins their home, wearing the remnants of banners that had hung in the factory halls in yellow, pink and white. Their leader was a well muscled sixteen-year-old who sat on a throne made of Sarema Illkeina’s pilot seat from the remnants of her ship, the Pinatubo.

The tribal chief demanded to know what Manumaleuna was doing on ‘his’ land after introducing himself as Tauban Ferrai, a bastardised version of the name of an ancient Polynesian water-spirit that took the name of a fox. When told that they were there to resurrect Goteki 45, the boy smiled and said that his tribe would not put up a fight if he were allowed to try and fly the ships.

Ten years later, Tauban Ferrai has abandoned his childish fantasies of becoming a prince of his peers, replacing it with an unparalleled love of speed. He was one of the few who tried to push for the allowance of open cockpits once more, and has said that there is no greater thrill than getting the thrusters balance perfect off the line and feeling the G-forces kick you back into your seat. His flying style is designed to bring as much power to the front as possible, though he eschews barrel rolls when he can, admitting that they make him feel somewhat sick.

His weapon skills are also a force to be reckoned with, and he has been marked as a wild card for large amounts of damage in Eliminator events along with the Triakis pilots and the mysterious Cahit Kaet’yrun of Mirage.

Second Pilot – Andrea Santiago ()

A resident of Easter Island, Andrea’s parents were divers who studied the ancient faces lost beneath the waves and so the girl ended up sometimes piloting their hover-yacht when her mother and faster needed their oxygen supply moved to a new location. Spotting her at the age of fifteen, Manumaleuna took a chance when he visited the island for a holiday and asked Andrea if she would be interested in flying ships as a career for someone other than her parents. Fed up of her mother and father’s dismissive attitude towards their only daughter, Andrea quickly accepted, heading to Makana during the FX250 league to watch and learn.

Trained in using slow, ponderous yachts, Andrea was a little nervous at first at piloting such high speed craft and it shows in her twitchiness at Zone and Phantom class speeds; however she knows her racing lines well and can pull out beautifully timed barrel rolls and perfect laps when the need arises. Having been infatuated for a long time with her lead pilot Tauban Ferrai, Andrea has not helped Goteki’s attempts at becoming friendlier by responding to Gryffyth Dawod of Icaras’ flirting with extra-fierce attempts to erase his ship from existence. Considering Icaras’ rise in capability though, such efforts may only truly come into their own in Eliminator Events.

Third Pilot – --- (---)

<Goteki 45 is unable to supply information on a third pilot. Their initial selection for the season, Mr P. So-Gun of Seoul, Korean Federation, has breached Rule 12.89 of the FX500 Sporting Regulations by switching to the Federal European Institute for the Study of Antigravity Racing for the FX500 season without having informed his previous team of his plans or giving any forward notice. With such little notice, Goteki 45 is forced to enter the FX500 league with only two main pilots for the first series until we can promote test pilot Mai Tan-Yun (Indonesia) to a race seat.>

Last edited by Challenger #001; 4th February 2011 at 05:41 PM.
Reason: Pictures

Edit: The "fight" that Qirex had no control over, was that about the notion of an "unforeseen" rivalry between Icaras and Goteki 45? I felt that notion jumped away quickly; though it was reinforced with the reaction of the Qirex team after the fist brawl.

@Twitchy: People were assuming that the Datacast corporations that sponsored Qirex were trying to make Icaras and Goteki fight each other for more TV audience views. The fist fight that erupted after Goteki's first podium was broken up by Qirex though, so it put that theory to sleep. F7200 was about the cleanest Qirex ever got until Levovitch took over.

@Hellfire and DP: Thanks for the kind words. ^^ Mr Emery, couldn't resist it after your videos taught me how to fly.

Team Boss was Karolis Voronov, a half-Lithuanian businessman who'd taken over the company after a lot of wrangling from Holst McQueen before he died at the beginning of F5000. Chief Engineer was Sergei Levovitch, the father of Feliks, and lead pilot was Sascha Epprivov.

Again, brilliant, brilliant writing and story about one of my favorite team, my friend. Just one minor thing; its Anastasia Cherovoski

And you know, Dj Techno is the most fervent admirator and supporter of Auricom. He's still pondering is opinion about your story i guess. But i wouldn't worry about it, you can expect something positive from him

Yeah, I've tried to give every team a bit of an equal footing. So forgive me if Auricom aren't the angels of the grid and Qirex aren't Satan incarnate, but I've tried to play to the feel of the teams. ;3